Timeline: Whitey Bulger's life of crime

James Bulger was first arrested in 1943, at the age of 14, for larceny.

Bulger was sent to a juvenile reformatory in 1943 after arrests for larceny, forgery, assault and battery, and armed robbery.

A undated photo taken during one his arrests.

After his release from prison in 1948, he joined the Air Force.

When Bulger returned to Boston, he joined a gang that robbed banks and hijacked trucks. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1956

After prison, Bulger began a long affair with Lindsey Cyr after meeting her in a cafe

The two had a son, Douglas, who died when he was 6 years old.

By 1973, Bulger and Patrick Nee were in control of organized crime in South Boston.

Bulger became heavily involved in drug trafficking in the early 1980s.

By 1988, Bulger headed an organization that ran extortion, loansharking, bookmaking, truck hijackings and arms trafficking throughout New England.

In this undated photo released by the FBI, Bulger associate Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi is shown.

Along with Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, he led the violent Winter Hill Gang, a largely Irish mob that ran loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets.

Bulger served as a criminal informant for the FBI in its drive to dismantle the New England Mafia. He was wanted in connection with 21 murders.

Bulger's FBI informant card

This store was previously known as Stippo's and the South Boston Liquor Mart. Bulger and his cronies wanted Stippo's Liquor Mart. They brought along a gun and $67,000 in cash to help seal the deal with owner Stephen Rakes.

In April 1994, a joint task force of the DEA, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Boston Police Department launched a probe of Bulger's gambling operations.

Bulger was photographed before he fled in South Boston by a Boston Globe photographer.

Bulger disappeared just after his indictment on charges that he plotted with the Mafia to split up gambling and drug profits throughout New England.

Bulger is seen with his dogs in South Boston before fleeing the area.

Bulger and Greig walking their dogs in South Boston

FBI agent John Connolly was convicted of tipping off FBI informants Bulger and Flemmi about investigations of their crimes and warning them when they were about to be indicted.

Connolly claimed he had recruited Bulger at a late night meeting inside an FBI-issued car

Bulger is shown holding a goat in this undated photo taken shortly before he disappeared in 1995

Bulger had prepared to be on the run. He'd established a whole other person, Thomas Baxter, with a complete ID and credit cards.

Using the names Tom and Karen, Bulger his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, were spotted in several states, including New York, Wyoming, Louisiana and Mississippi.

This is a "Wanted" ad placed in the January 1998 issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine by the FBI.

This undated FBI photo was released Dec. 30, 1998. There were unconfirmed sightings in about 30 countries and on every continent but Antarctica.

Jackie Bulger is seen through his car window as he was pursued by reporters and cameras April 10, 2003, after he pleaded guilty to perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

John "Jackie" Bulger's retirement pension was stopped in May 2003, after he pleaded guilty to interfering with efforts to capture his fugitive brother.

This wanted poster was released by the Massachusetts State Police

Bulger with girlfriend Catherine Greig in a photo released by the FBI. When and and where it was taken was not disclosed.

Whitey Bulger and Catherine Greig

Then Senate President William Bulger received a $250,000 payment from a Boston developer. Federal prosecutors cleared him after an investigation.

These were FBI artist composition images released Jan. 2, 2003, showing Bulger, who was believed to have been sighted in London in September 2002.

The last confirmed sighting of Bulger prior to his arrest was in London in 2002.

Working with federal investigators, Terra Lycos hoped the placing of the posters over their worldwide network would assist in Bulger's capture.

State Police investigators examine dirt as a front end loader and an excavator dig for the bodies of victims of Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi in Hopkinton, Mass.

FBI photos of Bulger, taken in the 1980s and his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, who traveled with the former gangster.

A State Police officer is seen over a sifting table Sept. 22, 2000, at the search scene in Quincy, Mass., where authorities discovered the remains of a man, believed to be a Bulger victim.

Released by the FBI on Sept. 14, 2007 a man and a woman are shown in Taormina, Italy. They turned out not to be Bulger and Greig.

Former FBI agent H. Paul Rico was arrested in 2003 and charged with conspiring with his old informants in the 1981 murder of Oklahoma businessman Roger Wheeler.

Whitey Bulger Passport, date not known.

On his 79th birthday, the FBI increased the reward to $2 Million and released these "age-enhanced" photos.

The FBI released new sketches of reputed mobster James "Whitey" Bulger in 2009

The FBI had offered a $2,000,000 reward for information leading directly to the arrest of James J. Bulger.

The FBI released these images in June 2011, as it stepped up its search for Greig.

The pictures on each end depict what Greig might have looked like in 2004.

The FBI quickly changed its website after Bulger's arrest

Greig and Bulger had separate bedrooms in their California apartment, the FBI said.

The listing of tenants at the Santa Monica apartment where Bulger and Greig were living

An FBI agent holds an evidence bag outside an apartment complex where James "Whitey" Bulger and Catherine Greig were arrested

FBI agents load evidence bags into a truck outside an apartment complex where James "Whitey" Bulger and Catherine Greig were arrested.

James "Whitey" Bulger appears in court in Los Angeles after his arrest.

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